Sticking your tongue out
Let’s start with a little experiment.
Take 30 seconds and concentrate on the red dot in the center of the green circle. Look close to the screen if the picture is too small for you (and if your mother tells you it is not healthy for your eyes — she is right. On the other hand if you are still living with your mom, your eyes are the least of your problems).
Anyway, after 30 seconds or so, the green circle should start to disappear (if it doesn’t work try again and concentrate only on the red dot).
Disappeared? Great, let’s move on.
Didn’t disappear? Believe me, for most people, the circle is gone, the problem is with you and I have no way to help you. But don’t give up, keep reading.
Want a more colorful example? Here you go:
The Troxler effect explains an interesting phenomenon. Given that we observe and concentrate on a particular thing, other objects that are not in motion (and usually in weaker colors) disappear from our peripheral vision. This is a well-known phenomenon discovered by a Swiss physicist in the early 19th century (1804 to be exact). This is because the eye gets used to colors and in the absence of stimulation, like movement, the brain make the colors disappear.
Boris Becker and Andre Agassi are two of the best tennis players of the 20th century. They have won dozens of titles throughout their careers (Agassi at 60, Boris at 49) and have earned over $ 25 million in awards.
The balance of games between them is 10: 4 in favor of Agassi, but the beginning was quite different
In the first three games they played, between 1988–1991, Becker won. It was no surprise in any way. Becker was regularly ranked in the top five of the world’s tennis players and for long weeks as number 1–2. Agassi in the same period only entered the top ten and most of the time was out of the top five.
Becker had an incredible serve, culminating at a speed of nearly 250 mph. Agassi described Becker’s serve as “something I’ve never seen”. Becker posed a problem for Agassi that sent him to seek different solutions.
Tennis players have routines. Novac Djokovic dribbles before serves, Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer have their own routine as well as Raphael Nadal. they all do their routine in order to gain a small edge (and concentration) in this grueling game.
After hours of watching, Agassi began to notice something strange. Becker had an involuntary tick. during his regular routine, he would pull his tongue out either to the center or to the left side of his mouth. Agassi noticed that the direction of the tongue also indicated the direction of the serve. From that moment “the hard part was not to answer the serves, but not to give away that I know where he is serving”
Tennis players disperse clues, like workers, like businesses, like problems. Sometimes when we look at the problem for too long we start to lose information. We are addicted to the solution we know, and we are fixating on it for too long. This is the reason many companies are setting up red teams whose goal is to challenge existing solutions and give a different perspective on the chosen course of action.
Velcro is a great example that well demonstrates the need for observation. The inventor of Velcro noticed that during his walks in the forest there were seeds sticking to his pants. Looking through the microscope he discovered the tiny hooks design that allowed the seeds to stick to his pants. Thus was born the idea of Velcro, which in some products replaced the zipper and became a success.
Being able to get a new perspective on a familiar situation is important. Agassi could have analyzed Becker’s game for hours. He could have analyzed the success rates of serves being served left and right and thus make a statistical decision about his position on the court. The truth is that tennis, basketball and football teams and players all do this. Football goalkeepers know the preference of penalty kickers in advance but imagine they could know where the kicker is going to kick because of involuntary body language or another gesture? For that, they would have to look at the same problem differently. Do not focus on the direction of kicking but on the kicker behavior.
Employees scatter hints of satisfaction (or lack thereof) in various behaviors. We all know that the number of sick days predicts organizational engagement. The relationships between employees can predict attrition rates. Our focus, naturally, sometimes goes to business results, performance, KPI, surveys instead of much simpler things like caring and mutual help, or even keeping the office clean.
From the moment Agassi discovered the secret of Becker he won in 10 of the next 11 meetings. Years later, on a glass of beer, Agassi told the secret to the frustrated Becker who didn’t understand how anyone read his deadly serve. Agassi just didn’t try to win the serve. He stopped focusing on it and moved his focus to Becker. That’s where he found the solution.
